COUGARS club captain James Feather admits his side face their toughest challenge yet since the passing of Danny Jones when they board the bus to Swinton on Sunday.

The short trip across the Pennines will be the first away match since Jones tragically lost his life following the trip to London Skolars 11 days ago.

The Cougars favourite suffered a cardiac arrest during the match on Sunday, May 3 and collapsed on the side of the pitch before passing away.

Feather says Paul March’s squad face a psychological challenge to step back on the team coach for the first time since his close friend’s death.

He said: “This weekend’s match will be the first one since the London Skolars game where we are getting on a bus again as a team.

“Obviously it was horrendous what happened that day at London and so it’s about travelling to Swinton this week and handling things.

“It will be tough and certainly our toughest task to date because Swinton are a good team and this is our first coach trip without Danny.

“He was always laughing and joking on the bus to away trips and getting games of cards going with the lads.

“Not having him there is going to be difficult. I’m glad it’s a short trip, though, and not too far across the Pennines.”

Cougars honoured Jones’ memory in style last weekend by thumping Coventry 52-10 and the player’s widow Liz and their twins Bobby and Phoebe were there to see it.

Feather added: “The support from within rugby league just shows what a close, family-orientated sport it is.

“We saw that with over 4,000 people turning up, although it looked like there was a lot more, and the support we’ve had from other teams all over the country has been amazing.

“There was someone in a Catalans shirt, another from London Broncos, a coach came from Wigan and another one from Castleford.

“Cas fans were absolutely brilliant, they had big banners, and it was fantastic to see them there.

“There were people from Warrington and other clubs who were there to show their support to Danny, his family and the sport of rugby league.

“Different clubs have been organising bucket collections and raising money for Danny’s family, so it was a proud day to play the game.

“We said that irrelevant of winning or losing, it was actually just about getting out there and playing.

“Danny’s family asked us to go out there and play, so to pull our boots on and get out on the field was the achievement from the team.

“Luckily enough we did put on a good performance in front of a good crowd.

“Myself individually, I played as well as I could do for him and we enjoyed the occasion in the end because the turnout was unbelievable.

“There were a lot of local people there on Sunday who don’t normally come down or hadn’t been for a number of years.

“They all said they really enjoyed it and will come again, so hopefully some good will come out of this tragedy and Danny’s legacy will have kick-started something again for Keighley.

“It’s most welcoming to have such great support and hopefully we can get bigger crowds on a regular basis throughout this season now.”